Effects of distribution channel management on indirect channels distributors sales performance in Ethio -telecom

Distribution channel is most important decisions that management faces today. Indeed, if one looks at the major strategy of the marketing mix – product, price, promotion and distribution, the greatest potential for achieving a competitive advantage now lies in distribution. so, this research was aimed at determining the effects of the distribution channel management on indirect channels distributors sales performance in Ethio -telecom The study applied a quantitative research approach via employing descriptive and explanatory research designs to quench the specific and general objectives of the study. The researcher used census inquiry by taking 7 national and 70 regional indirect distributors as study’s respondents. Moreover, survey method through cross sectional method of inquiry was employed to distribute and gather structured questionnaire from respondents of the study. Both descriptive and non-parametric measure were employed to satisfy specific objectives of this study. The descriptive statistics result showed that distributors perceived channel support, channel control and channel communication practices relatively well albeit channel motivation, channel conflict management and channel commitment were rated as low. T statistics result also revealed that national distributors’ perceptions towards channel support, channel communication and channel motivation were superior to regional distributors. However, the perceptions towards channel control, channel commitment and channel conflict management practices did not have statistically significant difference between national and regional distributors. The Kruskal wallis test indicated all the six dimensions of indirect channel management influence the sales performance of regional and national distributors. So, Ethio telecom should give due attention to antecedents of sales performance of regional and national distributors.